ABOUT SIR CLIFF
Harry Rodger Webb was born on 14th October 1940 in Lucknow, India where his father worked for a catering company. The family came to England in 1948.
Harry liked Elvis Presley and Bill Haley so decided to form his own band in 1958. The band was first called the 'Planets' after Bill Haley's comets. The band included Norman Mitcham and Harry on the guitar and Terry Smart on drums . They soon changed the name of the band to Cliff Richard and the Drifters. Norman was soon replaced by Ian Samwell . Soon after they made their first record. The recording was heard by Norrie Paramor who arranged for them to actually make the record. The record was called 'Move it'. It reached no2 in the charts.
The success of 'Move it' meant that they were booked on a national tour with the Kalin Twins. It was the Kalin Twins that told the band that they should really think about another name for the band as there would be some confusion as there was already an American band called The Drifters. They decided to rename themselves as The Shadows. Along came Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch both on guitar and Jet Harris replacing Ian Samwell on the bass guitar and Tony Meehan replacing Terry Smart on drums.
Cliff and the Shadows got involved in films. The first one was called Serious Charge followed by Expresso Bongo which all happened in 1959. After the success of the above films they carried on and released The Young Ones and then of course Summer Holiday.
Norrie Paramour advised Cliff and the Shadows to move away from the rock music and start on middle of the road type music. This turned out to be a very good move as by the middle of the sixties Cliff had had 43 hit singles which included 8 number ones . Soon after, in 1966, Cliff talked about quitting music to become a teacher. He attended a Billy Graham rally and then became a born again Christian. Cliff made a few religious type songs and even recorded a religious film called Two A Penny. He did continue to make songs as well including Congratulations,which turned out to be his biggest hit of 1968.
In 1969 The Shadows left Cliff . It didn't really make that much difference to Cliff's stardom and he started doing his own TV shows.
In the Seventies Cliff was spending more of his time doing religious performances,and it was looking as if Cliff would retire ,but he had also been busy writing his Autobiography which had taken up a lot of his time. 1979 things got back on track and he had two hits which were,We Don't Talk Anymore and Devil Woman. We Don't Talk Anymore was his first No 1 in more than a decade.Devil Woman was his first major hit in the US. This led him to carry on with endless concerts and songs.
In 1980 Cliff was awarded an OBE. He was very surprised and thought that there must have been a mistake and that it wasn't meant for him.
In 1986 Cliff stopped touring and concentrated on doing a musical which was named Time. This was of course very successful for him. This was continued by even more hits and tours. One of his hits called Mistletoe and Wine was the top selling hit single of 1988.
In 1995 Cliff was knighted for his service to charity. Again this was a lovely surpise for Cliff and his millions of fans. He then started to work on the musical that he had always wanted to do called Heathcliff. This was another success and continued through most of 1997.
Cliff ended the decade with another hit. This was called Millenium Prayer. It caused so much trouble with radio stations refusing to play it and Cliff also left EMI as they refused to release the song . Against all odds he did make it to No 1 ,but it wasn't the Christmas No1. Nevertheless it was a huge achievement considering many radio stations would not even play it!
In 2000 Cliff decided that it was time to have a well earned rest. After all he had spent most of his life touring, making records etc. He spent his 60th birthday on a cruise with family and friends. It was also revealed that Cliff was taking Botox injections to get rid of some of his lines and wrinkles. The down side being the weakening of the facial muslces that allow you to frown. Most of Cliff's fans agree that they prefer him just as he is! and he does not need any help to look fantastic!
Now we are in 2001 and Cliff is going to be doing some Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in May. As we all expected its a total sell out. Cliff will also be releasing an album called Off the Record.
Cliff has achieved so much since the beginning of his career back in 1958. It would take forever to list his whole life. I have tried to include as much as possible. I hope you like what I have done. If you would like to see a list of all the songs Cliff has made then please look at the Discography.
20/05/2001